Sunflower Granola

I've been in a granola daze lately... Granola, chocolate, fruit, and peanut butter. It seems like my diet has been based around those four things for the past couple of days. Perhaps not the healthiest diet, but it's better than what most eat, right?

I hadn't actually made granola for some time, and after doing some experimentation with granola bars (with a couple successful recipes, which will come soon!), I wanted just simple granola, so... that's what I did! :D

Sunflower Granola
2 C rolled oats
2/3 C sunflower seeds
1/3 C coconut
1/3 C grapeseed oil
¼ t salt
1 t ginger
½ C sunflower seed butter
½ C maple syrup
A few spoonfuls of brown sugar, if a sweeter granola is desired...

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Mix everything together in a bowl, and bake for about an hour or so, or until it's the level of crunchiness you want. Stir every 10 to 15 minutes while it's in the oven, and enjoy! :)

Turtle Mud

Nearly every Tuesday, after my sister goes to work, my mom and I go food shopping at (what is perhaps the greatest corporate business there is) Whole Foods. I love it- aisle upon aisle of all sorts of healthy, organic, vegan foods. Not to mention the food bar...
It's pretty amazing how a supermarket manages to give me more options than the typical restaurant can. I just love being able to decide whether I want Thai noodles with sesame tofu, or the vegan Penang with a potato Somosa, or maybe just a sald or roes oats with fruit. And they even have vegan desserts!? Bliss! (It's so nice to have one day a week when I get a break from making my own meals)

Even my brother enjoyed the food they have there. He is nothing like me when it comes to eating habits... I'm the organic lovin', raw-enthusiast, locavore, vegan... He's the chicken nugget guy. 'Nough said.
But he liked the food at Whole Foods- albeit, all he got was chicken, mashed potatoes, and a turtle cake.

Now, I've never had anything Turtle before. But the very idea of mixing chocolate cake, pecans, caramel, and whipped cream enthralled me. I had to make a vegan version of this. I really wanted to try it...

So I did. That following weekend. And it came out wonderful!


Turtle Mud:
Constituents:
1 Chocolate cake recipe (Below)
Sugar sauce (Below)
2 C roasted pecans
1 Tub of Suzanne's Rice Mellow- or any type of vegan marshmallow fluff or whipped cream you want (but, damn, this stuff is good!)
The Cake:
1 ½ C sugar
½ C vegan butter
1 ½ C flour
¾ C cocoa
½ tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
½ C applesauce
½ T vanilla extract
¼ C agave
1 ¼ C almond milk
1 T vinegar

1.) Preheat oven to 375.
2.) Cream the butter and sugar together in a mixing bowl. Add the remaining ingredients, and stir to thoroughly combine.
4.) Pour into a greased 13x9 inch baking pan, and bake for 30 minutes


While that's in the oven, make the sauce:
In a blender or food processor combine the following:
¾ C pitted dates
½ C maple syrup
3/4 C water
½ T cinnamon
¼ C plant milk (I used soy)


When the cake is done cooling, cut it into 1 inch cubes, or whatever size you want. It's alright if it crumbles, after all, mushed cake always tastes incredible!

In a dish large enough, start adding some cake, spoons of rice mellow, spoons of the syrup, and pecans, to get a good mix of everything. And voila! Turtle Mud!

If you're making this for just immediate family, you may want to half the recipe. Unless, of course, you want to be stuck with leftovers ;)

Raw Asian Salad

Chinese food has long been one of my favorite cuisine, although I would always get the same thing (chicken and broccoli- yuck!)from a somewhat-dirty place. I finally began to really appreciate Asian food after going vegetarian and discovering a veg Asian restaurant not too far from me. And, especially after going vegan, I found it so nice to be able to actually look through a menu and have options rather than just getting the house salad or plain pasta.
I was happy to find that making raw vegetables Asian-style was easy and tasty. I decided to take raw Asian food a step further when I found some cabbage and mushrooms in the fridge that just needed to be used.
The outcome wasn't bad at all! My meat-loving dad even rated it a 7 out of 10 as a meal and a whopping 8 1/2 as a salad! (My mom gave it 8 out of 10 for a meal and 9 out of 10 for a salad)



Asian Salad serves 3

Ingredients:
1 ½ C shredded cabbage
3 carrots, grated
2 stalks celery, diced
1 C snow peas, chopped
1 C button mushrooms, chopped
1 shallot, diced
2 scallions, chopped

Marinade:
2 ½ Tbsp Olive Oil
1 ½ Tbsp Sesame Oil
2 Tbsp Nama Shoyu
½ Tbso rice vinegar
1 Tbsp Water
½ Tbsp Lemon juice
¼ tsp ground ginger
¼ tsp white pepper

Prepare all of the vegetables and mushrooms, and toss in a large enough dish.
Mix the marinade ingredients together in a bowl, and pour over the vegetable mixture. Mix well.
You can eat it now, but it tastes better if you let it marinate for an hour or so.
Serve over a bed of spinach.

Granola Bars

Granola bars are amazing. There's no doubt, whether it's an elaborate bar, or a simple, raw, nut & date bar.
But the store bought stuff can get a little expensive... So why not make your own?
My mom likes having granola bars (or cereal bars) around to bring to work or have as a snack. The only bad thing was she would buy Kashi. I do have to hand it to Kashi for getting more people into eating organic, relatively healthy things, but Kashi is just a branch off of Kellog's- one of the largest buyers of palm oil there is. Not to mention the long list of ingredients on those bars, which also includes milk from dairy cows raised on CAFOs (if you would call mass producing a living animal raising...).
To get her to stop buying them, I promised I would make my own granola bars for her.

The first couple of tries did not work. But then I discovered the glory that is parchment paper!

Basic Granola Bar Recipe:
2 C rolled oats
1/3 C oat flour
½ tsp salt
1/3 C nut/seed butter (I like using a mix of different ones)
1/3 C vegan brown sugar
2 T rice syrup
¼ C safflower/sunflower or grape seed oil
¼ C agave syrup


~ Preheat oven to 350 degrees
~Mix all the ingredients together, and press into a baking pan lined with parchment paper. Bake for 20 minutes, or until edges are golden brown.

These are delightful with some melted chocolate on them, or with chocolate chips. And it's so easy to add any type of whole nut, seed, dried fruit, or whatever floats your boat.